Get It for Free!

If you're in the market for anything from a DVD to a bicycle, don't buy it — swap for it instead.

Maybe there's a silver lining to the economy's recent nosedive: A quasi-cashless society has cropped up on the Internet over the past couple of years wherein you can swap for all kinds of great goods. If you're willing to pay for shipping, you can find almost anything — from the first season of Heroes on DVD to Old Navy clothes for your kids to photo printers — all either brand-new or gently used, and all completely free. And, at this moment when we're all interested in recycling, it gives you a fun and relatively stressless way to get your unwanted stuff into the hands of a grateful recipient. Here's a look at some of the biggest and best sites where you can swap safely.

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Entertainment

Swapadvd.com,which was given the thumbs-up by the Good Housekeeping Research Institute (GHRI) for its ease of use, can be a movie maven's best friend. Register for a free account on this site and decide which of your DVDs you want to swap. You must have the original cases; use the UPC codes on them to easily list your DVDs. Full descriptions and cover art are supplied by the SwapaDVD database. When someone wants one of your DVDs, you mail it out (postage averages about $2 per package via first class mail; SwapaDVD members can print postage and a combo mailing label and wrapper for sending movies). When the other person indicates receipt of your DVD, you get one credit per disc deposited into your account. List 10 DVDs that you're willing to send out, and you can immediately request a complimentary DVD — you'll find everything from The Sopranos: The Complete First Season to Jillian Michaels: 30 Day Shred. On a recent visit to swapadvd.com, 196,608 DVDs were available for swapping. Unlike those from Netflix or the library, DVDs from SwapaDVD are yours to keep. That's one reason why Kathy Goughenour, of Black, MO, loves the service. "We live in a petite house, and we must have had 1,000 DVDs," says Goughenour, 53. With swapadvd.com, she off-loaded duplicate DVDs, whittled her collection down to about 500, and got new movies to watch. If she ever tires of them, she can swap them again. "We've canceled all our movie channels," she says, "so we're saving at least $40 a month."

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Swap.com lets its members trade books, movies, music, and video games for free. With about 3.5 million items up for swapping, it's no wonder GHRI gave it high marks for selection. Unlike on other sites, where you have to earn points in order to start trading, on swap.com you make one-for-one trades or three-way trades, and can start as soon as you sign up. When you join, you list "Items I Have" (what from your collection you're willing to give away) and then list "Items I Want." Then the site does its matchmaking to find you a swap partner, saving you hours of potential Web-surfing time. Sarah Foster, 45, a technical editor in Atlanta, has used swap.com for more than a year, and has traded Ever After for Juno, the original Star Wars Trilogy box set for the How I Met Your Mother Season One box set, and Rain Man for Waitress.

Kristi Cole, 39, a mom of two in Dallas, has used swap.com for two years as a way to thin her hardcover book collection — and get some new reads and flicks delivered right to her door. Since the service lets you print postage at home, "that means no standing in line at the post office," says Cole. Another benefit: The site tracks how much money she's saved by swapping: "In my case, $99 on 17 trades." All traders get ratings, as on eBay, so you can see who is a quick and reliable trader — and who isn't.

Kid's Stuff

Swapbabygoods.com may not have millions of listings — typically, there are about 1,000 listings, from brand-new Berkshire-brand bedding to iCarly backpacks — but the site has other benefits that members rave about. Jennifer Bailey, of Marysville, MI, says she's traded for loads of gear for her 5-year-old daughter and 3-year-old twins, including cute Gymboree clothes in great condition. And because swapbabygoods.com is set up for one-to-one swaps (you find someone who has something you want and who wants something you have), she's connected with other moms of twins; they regularly swap clothing as their kids outgrow it for coupons and other things. The members of this dynamic community even share tips on how to save money on meals. Bailey, 42, says that this advice has helped her save a big chunk.

Zwaggle.com is a virtual mall teeming with stuff for kids — Game Boy cartridges, Old Navy clothes, Stride Rite shoes, and more. How it works: You use "zoints" as your currency. You get 25 zoints for joining the site, and more as you send off your unwanted gear. The site includes an integrated FedEx and U.S. Postal Service shipping tool that lets you print out a prepaid and preaddressed shipping label and schedule a pickup — so much easier than schlepping to the post office.

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Colleen Ehrnstrom, of Boulder, CO, turned to Zwaggle after having good experiences with Craigslist. "Craigslist stays local, and Zwaggle has created a national option," says Ehrnstrom, who's gotten a new baby sling and more from the site. You can choose how many zoints you want to receive for something you're offering. "A stroller may be 'worth' 20 zoints," explains Ehrnstrom, "but if I don't want it in my house anymore, I'll post it for five zoints, and it's gone in an hour." Good to know: Zwaggle has a resolution team that can step in and mediate if a swap goes wrong and the people involved can't settle the matter themselves.

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Services

Timebanks.orgprovides an interesting new way to swap favors. If you've ever wished you could walk a neighbor's dog for a week in exchange for getting your gutters cleaned, this may be just the site for you. You donate as little as an hour of your time doing a requested task in your nearest TimeBank's online catalog, from feeding someone's pet to weeding a church garden, and then deposit that hour in your account. You can later withdraw that time when you need a free service from another member. Of the over 100 TimeBanks groups in 34 states, the most popular "bartered" services include housekeeping, pet care, transportation, and home repair. And some TimeBanks have a comforting safety net: In order to join the TimeBanks group, every person must go through an extensive application and interview process along with a criminal background check.

Freebies for All

Here are two Websites that can help you get free stuff without ever participating in a swap

Afullcup.com is an online savings forum packed with coupons and a freebies section with leads on how to get anything from Dentyne gum to Purina pet food to books for kids — at absolutely no cost.

Citiesonthecheap.com is actually a network of "on the cheap" city Websites. They offer hyperlocal information on free things to do, see, and eat in your area, such as when there are free sandwiches to be had at Chik-fil-A, when kids eat free at IKEA stores nationwide (this is possible more often than you might think), and when museums, movie theaters, and minor-league baseball teams offer discounted or free admission. Started by an Atlanta mom looking for affordable ways to keep her kids entertained, citiesonthecheap.com now includes 30-plus different Websites across the country.

Swap Safely

Trading is built on trust, but that doesn't mean everyone out there swapping on the Internet is trustworthy. To protect yourself, keep these key rules in mind, says Daniel Meyerov, CEO of onlybusiness.com and an online business expert.

Be cautious when you're dealing with a new swapper — someone with no history on a swap site (most sites show how many transactions someone has under her belt). Have that person send her item first. "If you send me your item the way you promised, then I'll send my item," Meyerov explains of this unwritten etiquette. He estimates that 85 percent of swaps gone bad — called "swaplifting" — involve traders with no recorded experience. A first-time swapper could just be new to the online-swap world, or she could be a scammer out to get something for nothing.

If you choose to unload your unwanted items via Craigslist and Freecycle, don't be home alone when the recipient comes to pick up his goods. Also, since these sites can be plagued with first-takers who wind up being no-shows, give a deadline ("If you're not here by 1 P.M., I'll offer it to the next person") or, on Craigslist, ask for a small amount of money — $5 or $10. To further protect yourself, accept only cash or advance payment via PayPal.